A CURIOUS COLLECTOR — LARRY VOLLUM
STORY | Ben Abrams
PHOTOGRAPHY | Stephen Mitchell & Eric Tapia
When I proposed writing a profile on Larry Vollum, I had only heard of the Portland resident and whispers of an impressive, meticulously curated, and well-driven car collection. Based on the cars I had heard about and the people who spoke highly of him, I felt compelled to learn more about him. Staying out of the limelight, Larry prefers his cars speak for him. Whether you see him driving around in his Porsche 959 or a Renault Twingo, assume that he’s got a great reason for why it’s in his garage. And, while he doesn’t favor loud and flashy, he savors connecting with people who are passionate about cars and loves to speak with other enthusiasts.
NEO DOESN’T WEAR SOCKS
At the Avants Portland launch event, I noticed that Larry wore no socks. He was walking on the heels of his shoes, as if he had just slipped them on but didn’t care that they weren’t slippers. This was clearly a man who cared more for comfort and function than style or brand. Larry and I talked a lot that afternoon and my hunch was right: He has a wealth of information and experience. If in The Matrix, Neo chose to download “Foreign Cars from the Last 50 Years” instead of “Kung Fu”, he’d be close to Larry’s level. As he left the event, I couldn’t help noticing that he removed his shoes when he got in the driver’s seat and closed the door.
A lifelong enthusiast, Larry is fascinated by minutiae, an “everything is important, or nothing is” kind of guy. In his day job as an engineer and designer, he directs design and innovation for a medical equipment manufacturer. Whether it’s medical equipment or cars, Larry fastidiously channels his focus on “blending performance, aesthetics, and engineering into a strong and unique user experience.” He goes on to say, “I am interested in the intersection and the implementation of beauty and function, not one or the other.”
To get a well-rounded view on the man, I asked Larry’s two daughters, Alix and Nicole, to chime in on their dad and his passion for cars. Alix puts it this way, “He has a curious and encyclopedic mind, and cars are one vector along which this is expressed. In fact, cars are unique among his interests in that they perfectly marry his design and aesthetic sensibilities with his mechanical inclinations.” Larry’s other daughter Nicole echoes this assessment: “There is the appreciation for the machine itself, each story and history, and then there are the cars as a medium for a much broader way of living—he has always had a strong passion for knowing how things work.”
SLIP THROUGH THE GAPS
As a kid growing up during a fuel crisis in the early 1970s, Larry remembers car magazines touting the efficiency of the smaller, lightweight cars being built across the pond. Europeans were finding new ways to go fast, and Larry saw fuel guzzling American muscle as an inefficient, unsustainable approach. He convinced his American car loving father to buy a 1974 Audi Fox, and, with that, the ball was rolling. After that, the first car he bought for himself was a new 1977 MK1 Volkswagen Scirocco.
As time went on, it was only natural that he’d gravitate towards the (almost exclusively European) motorsport of rally–these were lightweight cars that served as test beds for up-and-coming technologies like 4WD and turbocharging. Rally tests a car on numerous surfaces, being good at many things rather than just one thing; this was where Larry was meant to start his collection.
In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Larry identified cars that “could slip through the gaps,” the “gray market” cars never sold in the U.S. In those days he lived in Southern California, an “epicenter of car energy.” Coincidentally he lived just a short drive away from Sun International, one of the first stateside importers specializing in this niche. They focused on the European grails not imported into the U.S. by automakers. “It was an exciting part of the U.S. automotive landscape - enterprising folks made interesting things happen,” he adds.
Thanks to a Group B rule change in 1982, the homologation requirement dropped from 5,000 to 200 cars. Homologation cars suddenly went from unique to exotic. The Group B homologation cars were “avant-garde,” streetable race cars offered at a serious discount thanks to the “write it-off attitude” of the carmakers who needed to dump a few hundred cars so they could go racing. These cars integrated legitimate competition-car build processes, technology, and materials while managing to maintain a very “street-worthy” experience. They were the best of all worlds for an engineer and budding enthusiast. Out of this “homologation special” group, the first to catch Larry’s attention was the spunky Renault R5 Turbo 2 but especially the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (1984).
The Peugeot 205 T16 was the first and obvious place to begin, a state-of-the-art racecar in a street-worthy package. A true first of its kind, it was mid-engine, with an advanced 4WD system powered by a four-valve turbo intercooled 1.8-liter four-cylinder. It packed 200 horses in the street car and TRIPLE that for the race cars. As Larry started envisioning road cars that would be at home in the Pacific Northwest, the 205 T16 ticked all the boxes.
Larry opened the door, then kicked it down. He purchased one of each of the rest of the Group B homologation cars: Ford RS200 (1986), Citroen BX4TC (1986), Lancia S4 (1986), Metro 6R4 (1985), and the Audi Sport Quattro (1985). Over the years, he has let some go for one reason or another (the Metro, for example, was just too raw for the street). Yet, there aren’t many people in the world who can say they owned all of them at once, brand new from the factory. From a guy with lots of stories, the one about the Group B collection “is a story in and of itself,” laughs Larry.
FORM AND FUNCTION
Whether he’d admit being a trendsetter or not, Larry’s been on the bleeding edge of cool cars for a long time. To the current enthusiast, cars like his are either fawned over now or will be soon, as others catch on to what Larry discovered 30 to 40 years ago. For years, Larry has kept an eye out for significant cars that never made it to the U.S. From Germany, it was the 1982 Porsche 924 Carrera GTS Clubsport, then the seminal 959 (1988). From Italy, it was the Lancia Delta Integrale (1993), and most recently, the Alfa Romeo 916 GTV (1997) and Fiat coupe (1997). Larry has a story for why each of these is in his garage and how they correlate to each other, forming relatable pairs and groups. He doesn’t have favorites; they’re all his favorites and all for very good reasons.
For Larry, form and function go hand in hand, as a well-designed and engineered car isn’t achieving its purpose sitting still. Quickly after he started buying cars, he chose road courses to properly appreciate his choices and that’s where he honed his skills. He began by taking Bob Bondurant’s school at Sears Point Raceway. He recalls Bob driving him and other students around the track at speed in a 12-passenger van. It was then he realized that the car didn’t matter as much as the driver did. Larry then participated in autocross and time trial events (initially in his 1977 Porsche 911 and his 205 T16), eventually evolving into wheel-to-wheel racing in IMSA Endurance and the Formula 1000 series. He has been driving on the track for over 40 years, coaching and racing in numerous classes, including IMSA GTU, SCCA, SSGT, S2, FC, ACRL, DSR, and F1000. He still owns the Formula 1000 car that he helped design and in which he won the F1000 Pro Series in 2014.
Larry says, “The primary reason for cars to exist is to be driven. In that department I am very passionate about proper training, developing the skills and knowledge to operate a car in a safe and efficient way, especially in high-performance situations. I take all my cars out on the track and drive flat out. It’s a car, it HAS to work.”
RALLY DAD
When Larry became a father, he found ways to bring his growing collection and family together. Alix and Nicole were surely imprinted by their dad’s fascination. His first “dad-mobile” was his 1994 Ford Escort Cosworth, one of three that he’s owned. This was another homologation special once overlooked in America but now revered by enthusiasts. His girls remember waiting to get picked up from school, hearing “The Blue Car” (the “Cossie” Escort) that their dad was driving long before he came into view. When his family outgrew the 2+2 configuration, Larry decided to search for a four-door dad-mobile, and naturally the 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Tommi Mäkinen Edition fit the bill. Duh, did you think he was going to buy a minivan?
Alix remembers growing up around cars: “My earliest memories are of sitting in the stands at PIR with my mom, eating a corn dog in the hot sun, and my ears ringing as we waited for the cars to speed by us again.”
As his daughters got older, Larry made sure to pass on both the skills for car control as well as an appreciation for the manual transmission. It was never about getting them comfortable in fast cars, expecting them to master complicated tracks, or hoping they’d get the bug for racing. It was about learning life’s lessons using the car as a teacher’s aide.
Alix remembers, “He’s an excellent teacher; through driving, he has taught me by example that everything is a puzzle. Driving a fun car is a simple way to shift your perspective: if your mind is engaged, driving to the grocery store is an enjoyable challenge rather than a tedious errand. You should never be bored while driving. Sitting in stop-and-go traffic is an opportunity to expound on theories of traffic flow and efficiency.”
Nicole chimes in, “While we of course got plenty of bedtime stories read from books, we also got longwinded explanations of the internal mechanisms of a manual transmission. Each turn of the Portland International Raceway track is ingrained in my mind from the countless times it was drawn on my back at night as my dad recounted his most recent race.”
Alix repeats a few mantras she learned, “Find the apex of the curve. As soon as you have a straightaway, accelerate. Don’t be afraid to rev to redline.
These lessons carry over from street to track and Larry used performance driving to help prepare his girls for life. The way the girls and their father speak of cars, and driving in general, make it clear that cars aren’t just packages of metal, glass, rubber, and electronics, they are functional yet artistic tools through which we learn to engage in our world.
Now grown, the girls have developed their own preferences, unsurprisingly leaning towards cars from a “simpler time.” Alix says, “My dad had impressed on me certain ideas about what’s important in a car in terms of driving experience and design. We agree that many modern cars feel numb and anonymous, with an overreliance on driver assist technologies, overburdened with features and flashy screens such that the actual experience of driving is an afterthought.” Sounds like Larry did his job both as a dad, and as a car guy.
But what about the lack of socks, you wonder? It’s a carryover from his days spent beach-side in California. It sticks to this day because not only is it comfortable, but it provides a more visceral connection to the pedals and the car. Each car has its own pedal layout, pedal box, ergonomics, pedal pressure points, etc. It’s like holding hands with your special someone. It’s always better to do it without gloves on. It just turns out that Larry has many special someones so socks be damned!
